


Ghost Girls

by KatWritesStuff



Category: Original Work
Genre: College, Cute, Eventual Romance, F/F, Fluff, Ghosts, Haunted Houses, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Female Character, Lesbian Character, Romance, Roommates, f/f - Freeform, haunted, paranormalromance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:27:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 18,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23078575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatWritesStuff/pseuds/KatWritesStuff
Summary: Ginny finds the most perfect little flat, just far enough away from her university campus that she shouldn't be bothered by noise and parties any more. The only catch? Yukiko already lives there.A cute and quirky lesbian romance about a girl and the ghost she falls in love with.Updates Monday and Wednesday
Relationships: OC/OC
Comments: 13
Kudos: 8





	1. Ginny

"There's just a small matter of-"

"I know, I know. It has history. Someone died here. I don't mind that. As long as you haven't left their body somewhere, I don't mind."

"Other tenants have found-"

Gi turned to give the woman a tight smile. She was ringing her paperwork in her hands, a nervous frown on her face.

"If there are any problems I promise that I'll call the agency," Gi said, hoping that her smile was reassuring.

"You're sure you want to live here?"

"I'm sure." She gave the nervous woman a more genuine smile. Every place had history, she knew that much. It was a shame that someone had died there, of course it was, but she had to move away from campus and it was the cheapest place of it's size on the market.

"Well, I'll leave the paperwork with you. If you just get it all signed and sent back to us. You can move in today."

"Thank you."

Gi took the keys, signed the papers and watched with mild surprise as the woman almost ran to the door. She looked around as she heard the car pull away. It was a little flat, hardly big enough for one but that was exactly what she wanted. The kitchen was a good size, and so what if the bedroom was also the living room. She wasn't planning on having company. A little sliding door lead into a storage space and beyond it a teeny shower room. It would be easy to decorate, easy to heat, and it was hers.

All that was left was to collect her things. She had already packed, hopeful that the home that had stood empty for just over a year would be ready to move into. The last challenge would be getting in and out without seeing any of her housemates. If she was lucky there wouldn't be too many questions.

"Ginny, Ginny hey!" She winced.

"Hey, James." He was one of the nicest in the shared space, but so very loud. It seemed that even when he was an inch away from her he was bellowing. He would make it a long way in music with that voice, and he was friendly, but there were seven others. One good egg wasn't enough.

"What are you up to?" He was beaming at her, like a puppy with a new toy.

"Right now?"

"Literally now. I worked out the harmony, Ginny. I did it. It's a minor sixth. Works like a dream. Listen!" He held up his guitar, hands quivering.

"James, I would love to, but I gotta book. Assignments you know?"

"Oh, yeah sure. Want a hand?"

"I'm good."

"Okay. Well, see you around."

She smiled and slipped down the corridor. A suitcase, her easel, and a rucksack were all she had. She could give her key back tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!
> 
> So, this is something non-fandom related but I am hopeful that there can be a home for it here anyway.
> 
> If you have come over from Addamswood, thank you!
> 
> If you are brand new, welcome!
> 
> I hope you enjoy Ghost Girls.
> 
> With love and words,
> 
> Kat


	2. Yukiko

Yukiko peered around the door. The new girl had gone. Maybe she wouldn't come back? Sighing, she drifted through the little flat, staring at the paperwork on the counter. The new girl had signed it, that was a first in months. Everyone had been so put off, because of her.

"Ginny," she whispered the name a few times. "What kind of girl are you, Ginny?"

She'd left a small satchel behind. Yukiko flipped it open and stared at the contents. A laptop, some notebooks, and a book. She pulled it out a little to read the spine. _"Love your watercolours."_ She shrugged.

There was nothing to do but wait and see what the girl was like. She could be nice, some had been until they realised that she was there. That was when they stopped being nice. She could deal with that though, and there was nothing they could do to her. She was already dead.

The door opened and closed. Someone was coming up the stairs. Yukiko swept into the kitchen and made an attempt of ducking behind the small breakfast counter, chiding herself as she remembered that so far none of the residents had successfully seen her. There was no need to hide.

Yukiko watched the strange new girl unpack. The clothes were sparse, but there was an endless stream of rugs and blankets, pieces of fabric that she draped here and there until the carpets that Yukiko had spent weeks choosing were entirely covered in bright hues and eye watering shapes. She frowned. This girl had no furniture, nothing that she could sit on or sleep in, but she seemed pleased. What kind of person would be pleased to live in a flat that was haunted?

In the space of an hour everything was covered in colour. The girl, Ginny, had rolled out a mat and thrown a blanket over it. A pillow roughly tossed at one end and a knitted thing that could have been a bear or a dog seemed to be sufficient to designate it a bed. Yukiko drifted closer, certain by then that the girl couldn't see her.

"Hello?"

Nothing. So she couldn't hear her either, that was new. Yukiko waved her hands in front of Ginny's face but she didn't even flinch.

"Well, you're going to be wonderful company aren't you."

Deciding that there was nothing better to do, Yukiko settled as best she could onto the makeshift bed and looked over Ginny's shoulder. The easel was up, a sketchpad sitting against it, and she was sketching something that looked almost familiar to Yukiko. A stroke here, a line there, and something was taking shape. She smiled as she saw it, a winding valley of trees, a little path somewhere in the distance. An artist might be nice.


	3. Ginny

"Hi Da." She smiled, of course he was checking in. Of course he wouldn't just sent a text.

"How's my best girl?"

"I'm your only girl Da." Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Still stands. You can't just text me about getting a new place and then tell me nothing about it Ginny!"

"It's just outside of town. Only small but it's in a nice quiet area and the bus stops just outside. It's cheaper than halls too, so I should have money for travel without too many problems."

"And you're sure you'll be alright, living on your own?"

"More than alright. This is what I need. I can't deal with those people, Da. All they want to do is drink and party. They make so much noise day and night. If I had stayed there much longer there would have been a paintbrush murderer on the loose, and I don't want you to have to deal with that."

Her dad chuckled, the way he always did when he thought that she was being dramatic. He hadn't met them though, she reasoned, so he couldn't possibly know how frustrating they had been.

"Well, if you're sure."

"I'm sure."

"Remember to eat."

"Da, I'll be fine."

"I'm going shopping later, want me to send anything up?"

"I'm okay for now. Thanks though."

There was a pause, and for a moment Gi wondered if her dad had hung up somehow. When he spoke again his voice was softer, concerned.

"You know I'm here, if you need anything. It's not too far to come and get you."

"I know. Thanks Dad."

"Anything for my girl. Talk to you soon."

She clicked off the phone and smiled, blessed that he saw the best when her mother would likely see the worst. Socialising was important, but she would rather choose who she did it with.

With a sigh she looked back at the sketch. Where had she been? It was a valley that she had drawn a hundred times, and would likely draw a hundred more. There would be trees here and there, a few bubbles of water as the stream wound.

A thump behind her sent the pencil in her hand flying.

Gi span around, staring at her satchel. It had flopped over. When had she put it there? She shook her head. Things fell over all the time, what was she worrying about. Haunted, it was laughable. She believed a lot of unusual things, folk tales and stories, but ghosts were a step too far.

She looked around again at the mostly empty room. She hadn't even brought a kettle. At least there was the little storage area, with a kind of wardrobe built in. That made life far easier. All she needed were some pans, a plate, and a chair. She didn't even mind sleeping on the floor.

"I'll shop tomorrow," she muttered to herself. "Maybe somewhere will deliver."


	4. Yukiko

Yukiko watched her new flatmate as she spread paint onto the paper of the sketchbook. Lines that were completely random until the last minute when suddenly they became a frozen moment in time.

She felt guilty for pushing over the satchel, but Ginny hadn't been as shocked as she should have been, just muttering that she didn't believe in ghosts. Until she had become one, Yukiko hadn't believed in them either.

Ginny unpacked a few small snacks out of the bag and was loading them into the fridge. There was chocolate among the snacks that stayed out to surround the heap of paint and paper. Yukiko leaned in and took a long sniff. What she wouldn't give to be able to eat chocolate again.

Night came and went, and while Ginny slept Yukiko peered at her things. There were more books than she had expected. Novels, stories about almost everything. Yukiko leafed through them, she had never made time for books. Then there were the paintings. She sat and flicked through sketchbooks that were full of places that looked almost real. They were all beautiful.

When she ran out of sketchbooks, she turned back to the novels. There were pencil markings in the margins of most of them, folded pages and highlighted passages. Ginny either loved or hated her books, and Yukiko couldn't decide which.

"What kind of person are you, Ginny?" She asked the sleeping figure. "Are you the kind who will run? The kind who will stay? Or the kind who will try to push me out?"

There was only one way to see if she was the kind of person who could stay, and that was to make it difficult. Really difficult.

It was cruel, she knew that, but it was exciting as well. The same excitement that she had felt standing at the top of a cliff ready to abseil down. There was something about pushing another person to their limits that was almost as good as pushing yourself. She swore, as she had with all the others, that they would come to no harm. Then the fun began.

Through the night, while Ginny slept, Yukiko set to work moving things around. The paints that Ginny had left scattered all over the floor she moved into a pile, the easel with it. She took the clothes that had been stacked in the open living space and hung them in the wardrobes. It wasn't the traditional method of haunting, but it would make a statement. Besides, it was painful to see her flat in such a mess.

She cleaned and tidied until the sun was coming up, not feeling the need for sleep that she had done when she had lived. It felt good to clean. She even began to rearrange the rugs that were over the floor so that the colours were more regular, a gentle change in gradient from one end of the room to the next. For a while it felt like she was home again.

"Well," she said, surveying when she had moved all but the sleeping girl. "That should do it."

It was cleaner than it had been even when she lived there. The many books had been alphabetised. The sketchbooks stacked in order of those that were full to those that were not. She took a few deep breaths, gripped the curtains, and flung them open letting the morning light soar into the room.

Rather than ducking behind the counter as she had become accustomed to doing Yukiko stood – or at least floated, unable to keep her feet on the ground – in the very centre of the room and watched as Ginny woke.


	5. Ginny

The light hurt. It was the kind of light that stung your eyes and bored into your skull. Ginny blinked a few times, staring at the open curtains. Had she left them open? She reached out for her glasses and found them far closer than they should have been. Why weren't they on the easel?

She blinked, trying to rub away the sleep that still clouded her eyes.

"The shit?" she muttered, looking around. Everything had moved. Everything.

Ginny shook her head, trying to remember that she was a reasonable and logical person. Perhaps she had been more organised than she remembered. It was possible that she had put her paints away, tidied up, rearranged everything without realising that she was doing it. She wasn't a messy person all the time. Besides, the alternative was that the estate agent had been right, and she was not ready to believe in ghosts.

"I am not going insane," she said to herself a few times, hoping that if she carried on she would start to believe it. It wasn't possible that there was any truth to the stories. Perhaps she had sleep walked...and sleep tidied. 

"There," she muttered to herself. "Logical, reasonable, rational." She huffed, trying to calm the slight trembling in her hands. "Who ever heard of a ghost who tidied anyway."

It was a day without classes so Ginny opted to stay in her pyjamas. There was no need to get dressed if she wasn't going to see anyone after all. She wandered over to her pile of books, plucking the book off the top of the pile. She had been half way through-

"Oh."

She looked at the pile. The book she was reading had been on the top of the pile but it was sitting somewhere near the bottom.

"Alphabetised. Well okay."

She pulled out the book and went back towards the bed. It had made itself.

"No," Gi said, louder than she had intended. "No, it did not make itself. Beds do not make themselves Ginny. You just straightened it out when you stood up. It's not like it takes any time to make a bed." She said the words firmly, but her heart was thumping. Was someone in the flat with her? Watching her?

"Impossible." 

With a stomp she crossed the few feet to the kitchen, intending to make a cup of tea. Tea, her father had always told her, makes everything look better. She stared blankly at the empty surfaces for a few seconds, remembering that she hadn't even brought a kettle. Tears welled up in her eyes. It was supposed to have been a good move, it was the perfect place. But she couldn't even have tea and flat's didn't just tidy themselves.

Shaking her head she straightened.

"Come on now, Gi. Pull yourself together. All you have to do is put some jeans and a hoodie on and nip to the shop. Get a kettle, come back, and it will be fine. There's no reason to get worked up about this. You're just stressed." If she had been paying attention she would have balked at how much she sounded like her mother.

She stared at the place where her clothes had been, and choked down the surprise. Nothing was where she had left it, nothing. She was almost shocked to find that she had woken up in the same space that she had fallen asleep in. A quick search revealed her clothing, hung up in order of garment in the large wardrobe with her shoes stacked underneath. Without looking at what she was grabbing Gi pulled on some trousers, a jumper, her most comfortable daps and made for the door.

With a final glance around the flat that was full of her things but didn't look like it was hers she grabbed her phone and a bag, dialing her dads number before she was half way down the stairs. He would have an answer. He always did.


	6. Yukiko

Yukiko stood still in the middle of the room. It wasn't exactly the reaction that she had expected. Ginny had seemed more concerned about not being able to make a drink than at the fact that someone had clearly moved all of her things around. Was she really going to try and rationalise it? It made some sense, she supposed, ignoring what was definitely there rather than having to adjust your beliefs to the possibility of something new. She had done the same thing once. 

She was going to have to try harder.

It was quiet in the flat without Ginny and though she had always hated the silence there was something different about it. She had, in the short day that Ginny had been there, become accustomed to hearing her steady breathing. To the way that she hummed when she worked. Without her, the flat felt as dead as Yukiko. She had never felt that before.

When Ginny returned with the newly purchased kettle Yukiko made a show of gliding around in front of her, waving her arms around.

"Come on, try to see me. You can be the first one." But Ginny carried on, taking off her shoes and throwing her jacket into the corner of the room. That brought a moment an old temper back to Yukiko. She moved as close as she could to Ginny's face and shouted. "I'm literally right here woman!"

Ginny reached through Yukiko towards the counter, shuddering and drawing her arm away when her hand touched passed through the ghostly chest.

"Cold," she muttered.

"Yes, cold!" Yukiko shouted at her. "Of course it's cold! And what does cold mean when things have been moving around on their own. I know that you're clever and I know that you read books about this kind of thing. They might be love stories but they still have the signs."

Ginny moved around the spot where Yukiko was standing, seemingly working on the basis of not stepping in the cold bit, and carried on making her tea. Yukiko sighed. Nobody had ever seen her. Nobody had ever wanted to, she supposed. But then, she hadn't wanted them to look at her either, to see the death that shrouded her. She drifted back from the kitchen, watching as Ginny made tea and took it back to the place that she called a bed. There was an Ikea catalogue on the floor. If she was buying furniture then she was probably going to stay.

"Well, if you're going to move things into my house I at least want a say in the matter." Yukiko huffed. She drifted towards the catalogue, tuning pages to look at what was within them. It was all the same things that had been there when she had moved in. 

Ginny hadn't noticed the moving pages. She was fixated on something on her canvas. Some spec that Yukiko couldn't even see. Yukiko watched, stunned, as without taking her eyes from the painting she reached for her brush. She didn't flinch when it was nudged into her hands. She watched as, still staring straight ahead, Ginny opened and mixed paints to begin working on whatever flaw she had seen. Yukiko forgot about the cataloguetoo, content instead to watch as the painting that she had considered beautiful transform into a place so real that she felt she could fall into it.

When the evening drew in and Ginny tucked herself away for the night, paint streaked in her hair, Yukiko drifted again around the flat. Shouting hadn't worked, moving things hadn't worked. Being generally in the way hadn't worked. There was something about the girl though, the way that she looked at her work. Yukiko didn't know what it was, but if there was anyone who might be able to see her...

It wasn't worth getting her hopes up too much. But it was something to think about. 

She lay on the floor, or rather a little above the floor - it was difficult to really lay down when you couldn't feel surfaces beneath you properly - and tried to work out what to do. She liked Ginny, a lot more than some of the previous tenants. She was quiet, creative and she didn't seem to be one those people who would call in priests or burn smelly incense at all hours. In fact, she didn't seem to have been phased by the potential haunting at all.

Yukiko closed her eyes. One of the many mysteries that plagued her about being dead that she could close her eyes still and see nothing. When she did it was almost as though she was alive again. With her eyes closed, listening to the light snore from Ginny somewhere next to her it was almost as through she was a living breathing girl. The lids snapped open. That was no way to think. Nostalgia had never got her anywhere.

Still, it was nice to lay there a while.

When she heard Ginny moving around she turned. A restless sleeper. Didn't that mean something? She was sure her mother had told her stories, but she couldn't remember. She drifted over and pulled the covers back up to cover Ginny's shoulders. A very small tattoo crested her neck and Yukiko peered at it a while, unable to make out what it was. She had wanted tattoos but she had wanted to be airline cabin crew more, and that meant clean skin. The ink that ordained Ginny's back was dark, but not black. Maybe some kind of bird?

Ginny shivered, making Yukiko draw back. Cold. Ginny didn't like the cold. Yukiko sighed. She was always cold. Cold and alone. 

A small pad of paper and a pencil sat on the floor by the bed. Yukiko stared at it for a moment, weighing up the idea. It could be too much. But then, just maybe?

She took up the pencil, struggling the hold the weight of it for any length of time, dropping it more than once, and wrote in a hand that she hadn't seen for - well she didn't know how long for - a short message.

_Hello Ginny. My name is Yukiko. I live here. Almost. Sorry I looked at your things. I think the rugs look better this way. Your paintings are nice._

She looked at the note, tore it from the book and threw it to one side. That would definitely scare her.

_Hi. My name is Yukiko. I used to live here. I still do a bit. Sorry if I scared you. I was interested in you._

No. That was still too forward.

_Do you believe in ghosts? Yukiko._

She snorted. It sounded like the start of a horror film.

_Exorcisms don't work. Trust me I've tried. And anyway I like you so I won't do anything awful to your things._

"Come on Yukiko, how hard is it to introduce yourself?"

After several more scrawled, discarded messages she came to something that looked about right.

_Yukiko, 19. Died 12/07/2017. I'm stuck in the flat. Sorry I moved things around. I just wanted to know who I was living with. Thank you for not trying to exorcise me._

It wasn't perfect, but it was the best that she could come up with and the effort was making her hand hurt more than she liked. The light was staring to drift in through the curtains so it would have to do. She gathered up the rest of the notes and dropped them into the bin, then sat and waited for Ginny to wake up.


	7. Ginny

Ginny dreamed about tearing paper. She walked through a maze of falling pages, each one tinged with frost that froze the ground around her as she stumbled onward. When she woke she was shivering but pulling the covers around herself tighter did no good. 

Trying to shake the dream away she sat up, pulling her old dressing gown around her shoulders to ward off the strange cold. She was going to have to order a bed, there was no avoiding it. She didn't have the money, but there was no way she was prepared to wake up cold every day.

She stretched, rubbed her tired eyes, and saw the little piece of paper laying on next to the cold half cup of tea that she had abandoned the night before. The writing on it was definitely not her own. She looked at it, read the short lines a few times and frowned. The room seemed to grow colder. Without taking her eyes off the intruding note, she picked up the phone and dialed an old friend.

"Eddie? Hey it's Gi."

"Gi? It's like, 7am. What are you calling me for?" She felt suddenly guilty. She hadn't even thought to check the time.

"Sorry Eddie, I know it's early but I have a question. It's a bit of an odd one, and well you're always the best person when it comes to odd things."

"Okay, alright, I'm up. What's going on?" His voice was thick with sleep, but it didn't stop her as she babbled out her dilemma.

"You know that I moved out of halls on Monday, into this flat?"

"Yeah, you literally haven't stopped texting me about how perfect it is. Do you need a hand moving stuff?"

"No, no I got that sorted. But, you remember I said that the estate agent had been funny about the whole thing, and that someone died here and that she had said that it was haunted."

She could hear that her voice was getting a little shrill and tried to calm the nerves that she had been fighting for the past few days.

"What are you trying to tell me Gi?"

"I think that they might have been right."

Eddie laughed down the phone so loudly that she had to hold it away from her ear.

"It's not funny Eddie. Things have been moving around on their own and this morning there's this note and I definitely did not write it to myself."

"Gi, are you sure that you're not just stressed? I know that halls were pretty horrible for you. Maybe you just need a week off."

"Eddie. I'm not mad and I'm not stressed."

Gi heard him shuffling around on the end of the line, and she smiled as she imagined him stumbling about not quite awake. He had never been a morning person.

"You could have been sleepwalking. You always did when we were kids?" She considered the suggestion, but there was no way that she could have done it all while asleep. Besides, she had _never_ been inclined to tidy.

"It's not that, Eddie. There's something not right here. What do I do?"

"I dunno Gi. If you think that there's something going on, you either have to live with it or leave."

She shuffled in her covers, still cold.

"Those are my only options?"

"Pretty much."

Gi sighed. Eddie was her go to, he always had been. If he didn't have a solution she didn't know what she could do.

"Can you come over? I know it's a long drive..."

"For you, Gi, 'course I can. Give me a minute to get dressed and I'll see you in-"

"About an hour, I think."

"About an hour it is then."

"Thanks Eddie."

"Don't mention it."

She heard the phone click to nothing, and sat for a moment holding it to her ear. She had been able to ignore the cold spots. She had rationalised things moving around somehow, but the note. That was something else. Something she hadn't been prepared to think about.

"Yukiko." It was an unusual name.

Gi pulled her wild hair into two small bunches, and dragged her laptop into bed with her. There would be news reports, if someone really had died in the flat she would be able to find out more about it and them. If the name matched then Eddie would have to believe her. Then it was just a case of making her believe her. She had believed in a lot over the years, but never in ghosts.

She tapped the name and the post code into Google and waited as the searches sprung up. The first result was a headline from the local paper.

GIRL FOUND DEAD IN LOCAL HOME. POLICE SUSPECT FOUL PLAY.

A brief skim of the article told little more than the headline. A second article was much the same. On the third there was a picture of a woman with long black hair, dark eyes and a wide smile holding a plaque. She looked older than Gi, though they very close in age and there was a confident gleam in her eyes. Gi stared at the picture for a while, she could have been anyone. They were at the same university, or they would have been. If the girl had been alive would they have met?

She surfed until Eddie arrived, finding out less than she would have liked to until finally she found a closing article.

EXCHANGE STUDENT MURDERER CAUGHT BY POLICE. EXPERTS PREDICT LIFE IN PRISON.

Murdered. She gulped, closed the laptop, and went to make tea. Tea made everything better.


	8. Yukiko

Yukiko

It had been a mistake. Of course it had, there was no way that she would just casually accept a letter of introduction from the ghost that. Stupid. She should have done it another way. Now Ginny was googling her. 

Yukiko paced around the small kitchen in the way that she always had when she was trying to work out a puzzle. Ginny had called someone, Eddie. Perhaps he would be able to see her. Someone would have to be able to see her eventually.

A slow fear crept into the back of her mind.

What if he was coming to try and get rid of her? What if he was the first to manage? She didn't think she could cope with another exorcism. The paper was still lying on the floor where she had left it, the pencil laying nearby. Anything was worth a try.

_I didn't mean to scare you. Sorry._

She watched Ginny's face spread from confusion to horror.

"Now I know I saw that. So, you're there. You're really there. But you can't be there. Ghosts don't exist. They can't. You can't. You don't."

She was panicking, but Yukiko didn't know what she could say that would help.

_I don't know how._

It was as close to a shrug as she could manage with just a pencil, but it fell from her grasp before she could do anything else. They had never been so heavy before.

"I've gone mad," Ginny whispered to herself. "Completely mad."

Yukiko stared at the pencil. She could write another note. Telling Ginny that no she wasn't mad, that she really did exist and really was writing messages but there was little use. It seemed her housemate wasn't prepared to accept it, and she had seen that reaction enough times to know that forcing the matter wouldn't help.

A loud knocking at the door, almost exactly an hour later, signaled the arrival of Eddie. He had brought a bag of things with him, things that Yukiko had almost been expecting to see. Candles, sage, salt, incense. The whole kit. Not that it would do them any good. Not even a priest had managed to 'contact' her. Though that wasn't hard, all they had to do was pay attention.

Ginny greeted the scruffy boy with a tight hug. She was muttering something into his shoulder but Yukiko couldn't make it out, and she didn't want to have to drift closer to hear.

"It's alright, Gi. I know you don't want to believe it, and nor do I, but if there's anything here to find we'll find it okay?"

Ginny nodded, still holding onto the notes. Yukiko wondered if she even realised that she was holding them. 

"Come on, pop the kettle on and I'll sort this out."

"You could just try talking to me," Yukiko sighed. They didn't hear her.

She watched as the boy marked a rough circle with table salt. It would take days to get it all up out of the rugs. Inside it he placed five candles in a smaller, rougher circle, with a chunk of burning sage on a saucer in the middle. It was one of the nicer set ups she'd seen. He must have done some research. Outside the window the little street was still. The apple trees waved in a light breeze. A car rolled by. Yukiko wondered how many people would expect that there was something so daft as a seance about to happen in the middle of their quiet neighbourhood.

"I think this is ready," Eddie said to Ginny, disturbing Yukiko's musings. "Come and sit down."

"Do you really think this will work?" Ginny's voice waivered.

"No, I don't, because I don't believe in the afterlife and I don't believe in ghosts and I think that while something strange is going on her there's a very rational explanation. However, as you are worried I will do everything I can to ease your mind."

Yukiko laughed. How silly of someone who didn't believe in ghosts to be trying to talk to one. Still, she would have done the same she supposed. Not through fear, as they seemed to be, but curiosity. When she had been alive she had relished the idea of meeting someone who had died years before, a person from the past who had been doomed to wander. It had all seemed exciting. The personal reality had been disappointing at best.

"So what do we do now?" Ginny was whispering as Eddie pulled the curtains closed and moved to light the candles.

Still with a smile on her face Yukiko drifted into the centre of the circle. She knew the routine and that was where she was meant to be.

"We ask if there is anyone here I suppose."

"That's not very scientific Eddie."

"Well nor is any of this." He sounded frustrated. 

Yukiko picked up the sage, holding in in front of his eyes for a moment before it dropped from her hands.

"Do," he gulped, "do we take that as a yes?"

"I told you there was something going on here."

Yukiko looked around for the pad of paper. She didn't have time for their nonsense. It had seemed fun to start with but was getting old very quickly.

Yes, I'm here. I've been here the whole time. Why can't you see me?

"Gi, I think this goes over our heads."

"Yukiko?"

Yukiko smiled.

_Yes?_


	9. Ginny

Ginny sat rooted to the ground. There, floating between her and Eddie was a pencil that was writing messages. Answers to questions. It dropped to he floor a lot, and the handwriting was difficult to read, but there was no doubt that someone was writing. Even if she couldn't see or hear them. She had tried, of course, she had looked this way and that way and squinted until Eddie started laughing. There was nothing there to see.

"I still can't see you."

_Do you believe that I'm here?_

"I don't see how I could believe anything else." Ginny sighed. "Do we have to be in this seance circle thing to be able to talk to you?"

_No. I can see and hear you all of the time._

"Well then." She stood up, flung the curtains open and blew out the candles, opening the windows to clear the smoke from the sage before it set the fire alarm off. "Sorry, Eddie. I know you went to a lot of trouble."

"It's okay. I never thought it would actually work."

"Me either."

"Now we just have to figure out how to see someone who isn't there."

_Google?_

Ginny laughed. Of course the ghost would suggest Google. It's not like she had died a hundred years ago. It had been a little over a year.

She spent the next two hours, with Eddie and one side and the notebook that represented Yukiko on the other, looking at the bizarre suggestions that the internet spat out when she typed in 'how to see a ghost.' Most of it she deemed utter nonsense.

"Look at this one," she shouted across the room to Eddie who was making his fifth cup of tea. "It says that I should hold a moonstone to my third eye and chant something that I definitely can't pronounce, which might be a kind of Latin, while standing in the approximate location of the ghost on the anniversary of the day that they died on the stroke of midnight."

"That's a complex set of instructions." He nodded, paying more attention to the tea.

_Do you think it would work?_

It was going to take a while to get used to seeing the paper float up in front of her, then drop to the ground before floating up again.

"No. Plus we would have to wait a little while. Yukiko why not just leave the paper on the floor, it seems you can't hold it for long?"

"Maybe you just have to say her full name three times into a mirror at midnight?"

"I think that only works for murderous dead women called Mary," Ginny giggled.

_Yukiko Shirokuto._

Ginny read the name a few times over. The articles hadn't given her full name.

"It's worth a try I suppose." She said, still trying to work out the pronunciation. "Does that mean that Yukiko will have to stand in the mirror. Or maybe behind it?"

"Have you tried just looking in a mirror with her?"

"Why would I have tried that, Eddie, I only started believing that she was here today."

Eddie wandered away from the kitchen and came back with the bathroom mirror in his hands.

"Has to be worth a look doesn't it?"

Ginny took the mirror and held it so that she was looking straight in it. The notebook floated over her shoulder, but all she could see was the book. No person holding on to it. She turned it towards the window, the light glinting off the frame, but there was still nothing but the notebook.

"Seems not," she sighed.

"I think you might just have to live with a ghost that you can't see."

They sat in silence for a moment, before Eddie brightened.

"Maybe you can put something on her, like a scarf, so that you know where she is."

"She's not a doll for me to dress Eddie!" I huffed, annoyed at how funny he seemed to find the whole situation. It wasn't a bad idea though. "Would you want to wear a scarf, Yukiko?"

_It would be tiring. Touching things, holding things hurts sometimes. But I could try._

Ginny rummaged around in her small suitcase and pulled out a bright orange scarf with elephants all over it. It was garish and she loved it. If it worked she could always pick up a different scarf for Yukiko to wear. She didn't really want to give up the orange one, but it was silk so it would be light, and it was all she had to hand.

She held it out, shivering as cold enveloped her hand for a moment. The scarf lifted then draped around the air in a fashion that, if she squinted, she could almost believe was on a person.

"Well then", Eddie said, smiling. "It looks like we have our solution."

"A solution, and a ghost."

"At least she's friendly. Not likely to smash things up and write on blood on the walls, right Yukiko?"

_Definitely not._

"I'm going to head off Gi, I'm sure you have a lot to talk about with your new house mate, and honestly as much as I love seeing you, I had other things planned for the day."

"No of course, thank you for coming over Eddie. I really appreciate the help."

"Anything for you."

Gi gave him a shove. Still grinning.

"So," she said once Eddie had been safely seen out of the door. "I guess we both have a roommate."


	10. Ginny

"You mean you don't remember at all?"

Gi was sitting on her bed roll, tea cradled in hand. Yukiko had made it, and that much was enough to leave her needing to sit down and panic for a while. There was someone in her flat, that she couldn't see or hear, but that could make her tea. She had only broken one mug in the process. Rational explanations had gone out of the window.

_Nothing specific before waking up here. There are some things that I know for sure, like the fact that that I lived here. Who I am, how old I am. But I can't remember why. There are lots of things swimming around in my head that make no sense._

The script was tight, lopped in neat arches across the page. Gi frowned. It seemed that Yukiko was getting better at controlling the pen. 

"So you don't know anything else about yourself? Where you came from? What happened to you?" She took another sip from the cup. It was good tea.

_When I focus, I think I can remember my parents, but I try not to. It-_

The pen slipped, dragging a long line across the paper before settling again.

_It hurts._

"Oh." Gi shuffled, trying to get more comfortable. She really was going to have to buy a bed. "I need to make some lunch. Do you, I mean-" she trailed off. How do you ask a dead person if they need to eat.

_I think I could if I wanted to, sometimes I get faint tastes in the air. And I can smell. But I don't get hungry. It's like I'm not quite here. I'm in a box just a little way away from the things that are real._

That answered that question. Gi stood up and made for the small kitchen, beginning the customary ritual of opening the fridge and all of the cupboards to stare at their contents before deciding to have soup. She always ended up having soup.

Gi started to hum while she opened the tin, but stopped herself. There was someone listening now. There always had been, she supposed, but being aware of it was different.

"So, Yukiko. I don't want to ask anything uncomfortable, but on account of how we're living together. What do you when I'm not here? When I'm asleep? When I'm...showering?" She took a few breaths. "I mean, I just want to be sure that you're not going to be the kind to watch me all the time. Sometimes I'm going to need space."

She heard the scratch of the pen, turning to read the pad that had been placed next to her once it had stopped moving.

_For a while when you arrived I did watch you. I looked at your things. I'm sorry that I did that but I was interested. Now when you're at work I read. You have lots of interesting books. I was never much for reading when I was-- Before. But now I have time. When you sleep I look out of the window, or try to shut down my mind. It works sometimes, and then I'm not really here. But I'm not anywhere else either._

There was a pause, and Gi noted that the pen seemed to be holding steadier than it had before. Perhaps remembering was good for Yukiko. The writing had started again.

_And I do dishes. You leave your dishes._

Ginny had to laugh. She had never been the best at getting housework done on time and it had driven her parents mad. There was too much else to do to worry about that kind of thing.

"I will try and do the dishes in a more timely fashion," she laughed, "and if you want any books picking up at the end of the month, if there is any money left in the account I'm sure I can stretch to that. They might be second hand but," she shrugged, "if you're going to be doing a lot of reading."

_I never thought I would do so much._

Gi poured the soup into a bowl, trying to splash as little as possible from the pan to the counter and headed back for the bed.

"What did you want to do, before?"

_I think I wanted to travel. I have memories, snippets of standing in great high places. Of learning about where etchings were in the world, memorising flight patterns. But I don't know why. It's there, but just out of reach._

"Maybe you were going to be a journalist. They travel a lot."

_Maybe._

"I don't think I could travel. Too many people out there, you can never know what might happen."

_Isn't that what makes it fun?_

Gi smiled. She knew that other people were adventurous. It just wasn't for her.

"Maybe. If you like that kind of thing."

She pulled the canvas that she was working on towards her, and frowned at it. There was something wrong with the light.

"I don't suppose you have any memories of being a fantastic artist?"

_No. I like your art though._

Gi smiled again. She had moved to finally find some time alone. But maybe, just maybe, having company would work.


	11. Yukiko

Yukiko concentrated. They had been trying all week to find something that would let Ginny see her. So far nothing had worked.

"Okay, maybe if you stand on the other side of the mirror. Behind me?"

_I don't see how that will help_

She scribbled as fast as she could to the notebook that was almost permanently falling through her hands. It would have been so much easier if Ginny could have seen her, heard her, but it was the most conversation she had ever had, and she was keen to cling to it. 

She was getting stronger when it came to moving things around, too. It was far less exhausting than it had been when she had been alone and though she wasn't sure that they would get on she was finding it was easier to talk to Ginny. Now writing everything down as she said it was feeling almost natural.

"It's worth trying. At least I already had a mirror." Ginny frowned at the stone with a hole in that she had ordered from Ireland. It hadn't worked any more than the rest of the things had. Yukiko suppressed a giggle. It had been the most bizarre idea of them all. But, folklore had a lot to answer for.

_Okay, going over now._

She drifted behind the mirror, so that she was looking at the back of it while Gi looked at the front. She held the notebook up over the top for Ginny to see.

_Anything?_

"Nothing at all. Well, unless you count my face. But I could already see that."

Yukiko sighed.

_I think we might have to accept that I'm always going to be invisible._

"What if," Ginny was grinning, "I bought a load of makeup and a wig, and you could wear clothes and socks and gloves. With the makeup and the wig on I would be able to see most of you."

Yukiko tried to look serious for a moment, realised that Ginny wouldn't be able to see her regardless, and wrote a terse 'Ha' on the page.

"Oh come on Kiko, it might work?"

_KIKO?_

She tried to make the writing as incredulous as possible. In none of her memories could she recall someone calling her anything other than Yukiko.

"It's easier to say," Ginny mumbled, "and I think it's cute."

_I prefer Yukiko._

"Well, okay." She put the mirror down and stared in the direction of the scarf that marked Yukiko's general location. "I do think the makeup thing is worth a shot."

Yukiko sighed again. There were a hundred reason why she didn't want to try makeup. It would be a lot of effort to keep on, and it would almost certainly slide around on her face and she would end up looking as though she was melting. 

But what if it worked? What if she put it on and looked like herself again, and could see herself in the mirror. What if she started to think that she might have a chance at a life just because she could be seen. She didn't remember how she had died, but she had a feeling that there was a reason why she was invisible, silent. Why she didn't know what had happened. There was something, something at the back of her mind. Until she fixed that, she wasn't sure that she wanted to be seen. The strange grey translucence of her hands, her arms, was enough for her.

_If we can't make anything else work she wrote, trying not to think too much about it, then I suppose it has to be worth a try._

"Okay. Next thing," she was hoisting up an old video camera with a VHS tape clipped into the side that she had borrowed from Eddie, and again Yukiko had to laugh. It had been Eddie's idea thanks to a computer game he had played when he was younger.

_Does that thing even work?_

"I think so. Though it's a bit heavy to use all the time. I'll get one strong arm."

Yukiko giggled. Ginny looked ridiculous with the enormous camera on her shoulder. Why she couldn't have tried it with her phone camera first was anyone's guess, but Eddie seemed to think that the old fashioned camera would work better.

"Okay, stay still."

_Staying._

She watched as Ginny flicked the power switch, pressed record and lowered her eye to the viewfinder.

"The good news is that I can see the scarf. The bad news, that I can't see anything else."

_Record for a minute, maybe, and when we play it back I might be there?_

Gi clicked of the recorder and peered at the message. She shrugged.

"It might have worked."

_What are you going to play it on?_

Yukiko looked around. Eddie had not dropped off the tape player that would go with the old recorder. She could see Gi coming to the same conclusion, and they both dissolved into giggles.

"Oh this is silly. Maybe I'll just have to manage talking to a scarf. I'm going to have to pick up a lot more notebooks through. You're going through them somewhat."

_Sorry_

"That's okay, I'm the one talking to you."

Yukiko smiled. Beset by a sudden burst of lively mischief, a feeling that pulsed through her and was almost warm. She hurried to Gi's wardrobe before she could be questioned and pulled on a jumper. A skirt that would have been uncomfortably tight if she could have felt her waist, and a pair of big socks. She tied the scarf around her head like a pirate, threw on an over sized pair of sunglasses that looked like they should have belonged to Elton John and burst out into the main room.

_TADA!_ She wrote, twirling around.

"Well I can certainly see you now, but you look ridiculous."

Gi was laughing so hard that she could hardly get the words out. Yukiko couldn't contain herself any longer, and joined the noise. Giggling until she felt as though she should be out of breath.

For just a moment, she felt alive. Solid. Real. The clothes were tight and the sensations of the fabric assaulted her skin. The feeling went as soon as it had come.

Gi was staring.

_What?_

"For a second there, just a second, I think I saw you. Your hair is shorter than I expected."

Yukiko lifted a hand to her shoulders, where her hair lay. She had cut it not long before. Before. Before what?

_Can you still?_

Gi shook her head.

"No, but for a second. I'm sure I could." She was smiling, and Yukiko beamed.


	12. Ginny

"Keys, keys, I need keys," Gi was hopping around the room pulling on a sock with one hand while using the other to scrub her face with a wet-wipe in an attempt to get the worst of the paint off.

A jingling behind her caught her attention, she span around and landed with thump on the floor. The sock was dangling sadly from her toes, and there was still paint in her hair that the wipe wasn't going to touch.

"Stupid rugs," she muttered. "Thank you, Kiko."

The keys fell a few feet away from her, and she scooped them up, watching as the scarf made for a whiteboard that she had picked up in her second week of living with Yukiko. It had proved far cheaper than paper. It drifted while the pen scribbled something. The message revealed itself and she had to cover the smile that was forming in the corners of her mouth.

_YUKIKO_

"Okay, okay." She enjoyed the nickname, in part because Yukiko hated it so much. It was her little payback for the passive aggressive dish washing in the early hours of the morning, which Yukiko seemed to delight in. "You know Kiko is cute, right?"

_No._

Gi finished pulling on the socks, holding her keys in her teeth as she swiftly laced a pair of heavy boots. She scraped her hair into two rough bunches, the curls sticking up at odd angles and frowned at the paint that had now spread to her hands.

"Well, I'll have to do." She swiveled wildly until she found the scarf. "See you when I get home?"

It bobbed in a way that she assumed was nodding. She always asked, even though it seemed that there was nowhere else that Yukiko could go.

"Okay. Bye!"

She ran for the bus, out of breath before she was even at the end of the street. Working and studying and building a portfolio and trying to remember to eat and sleep at the appropriate times was taking its toll. It wasn't like being a sales assistant at Hobbycraft was the dream job either, but they worked her shifts around her studies and even allowed for a little time to paint. Eventually they might let her have her own artisan table, and she could show her paintings and maybe give lessons. It would be a start. If she ever made it.

The bus was leaving as she rounded the corner.

"Hey, hey!" She ran a few paces after it but the driver either hadn't seen her or didn't' care. "Dammit."

It was twenty minutes till the next bus, which would leave her late. Again. Her heart thumped almost as much from the notion of another talking to from her manager. She had been late a few times since moving. If she walked from stop to stop maybe she would get lucky and the bus would wait. Or another one would turn up sooner. 

It was a cold morning as she trudged along, wishing that she had picked up a heavier jacket. Wishing that she had made the bus, that anything had gone right since she had woken up.

There was no bus at the next stop, and it would still be another ten or so minutes before one was there. She started walking towards the next one. If she was very unlucky she would end up walking all the way to work.

"At least it isn't raining I suppose," she muttered as she trudged along.

"Ginny?"

She span around, peering at the car that had pulled up beside her, and tried to stifle a sigh.

"Hey, Anna."

"Hey! What happened to you? You just vanished from halls."

"Yeah, needed more space. So I got a flat."

"Oh cool."

Gi turned to walk away but Anna swung the door open.

"Where are you going to?"

"Just to work." She started walking again.

"Come on Ginny, I'll give you a lift. It's freezing out here."

"I'm happy to walk, Anna. Thanks though." The conversation was already too much, she was sweating and couldn't meet the eyes of the girl who had probably assumed that they had been friends.

"Were we really that bad that you won't even accept a lift? What did I do?"

Gi sighed. It was exactly the kind of conversation that she had wanted to avoid. It was nothing that anyone had done on their own. On their own they had all been pleasant enough people. It was just that when they got together and started drinking... Well, she didn't want to have to explain it.

"I suppose a lift would be nice," Gi said, turning and pressing a smile onto her face that was so fake it hurt her. She was sure that Anna would be able to tell.

"Great."

She got into the run down old Clio and tried to relax a little. It was a ten minute drive, if Anna knew the way, and then she would be free. Anna was already babbling as they pulled away, any of the hurt from only moments before gone from her voice.


	13. Yukiko

The door rattled open and Yukiko made for her usual spot in the kitchen. She mulled around for a moment, then flicked the kettle on. Gi almost always wanted one of her fragrant teas as soon as she came home from work. It didn't seem like she had been gone long enough, but then, time wasn't really something that Yukiko was good at measuring and Gi didn't have a clock in the flat. 

Heavy footsteps came running up the stairs and Yukiko froze. That wasn't how Gi came home. Someone was in the house. She grabbed a pan from the counter and held it aloft, drifting towards the stairs. It was enormously heavy, and the tingling sensation in her hands was the worst that it had been since she tried to leave the flat last. 

She steeled her resolve as the footsteps got closer, and the pan stopped its slow slip from her fingers. If she had a heart it would have been hammering. She would stop whoever had come in from messing with any of Gi's things.

Short hair appeared over the railing followed by a round warm face. Yukiko was raising the pan to strike as the intruders hands flew into the air.

"Woah, Yukiko. It's me, don't hit me with, is that a saucepan? We have enough disasters to deal with right now."

Eddie?

Yukiko hurried for the white board, dropping the pan as she went.

_What are you doing here?_

"Something has happened to Gi, something bad I think." He was talking quickly, a rambling of panic." I got a text from her dad, said the hospital had called. That there had been some kind of an accident and that someone needed to get over there. He's away for work so I was closest. It's all I know, I just got in the car and started driving here. I went to see her but they wouldn't let me in so I thought I would grab some things for her, in case she's there a while."

Yukiko reeled. An accident. What kind of accident was she okay? She started scribbling again, struggling to keep a grip on the counter as the worry sent pins and needles all over her body. Eddie stilled her pen.

"I don't know, Yukiko. I have no more idea about this than you do. All I can tell you is that I need to go to her, to make sure she's okay. I'll tell you as soon as I know what's happening, okay?"

_Okay._

Eddie grabbed a bag and started pushing things into it. Yukiko dove in at various points, making sure that he took the book that she had started reading most recently rather than one that she had put down because it was boring. She handed him her favourite pyjamas and a stuffed toy that she was sure nobody but her and Gi knew about.

_Sketchbook?_

She scrawled it, waving the board at Eddie until he got the hint.

"I think she took it with her, you know as well as I do that she doesn't leave without it."

Yukiko nodded, forgetting that Eddie couldn't see her.

"I'll come back later. Hopefully I'll have some news after I've seen her."

He made for the stairs. Turning for a moment to look at the scarf that had become the marker for Yukiko. It had fallen through her in all the panic, and she hadn't even noticed.

"Try not to worry. I'm sure she'll be okay."

_Easy for you to say._

But he was already out of sight.

Yukiko paced around the room a little, looking out of the window, hoping that Eddie was going to come back with Gi, laughing about how they had fooled her. It didn't happen. The road outside was silent.

"I wonder if I can get to her," she muttered, surprising herself by attempting to speak. It had been a while since she'd tried.

Leaving the house. It wasn't something that she had considered since she had first died, since those beginning days when the flat had been filled with policemen, forensic teams, and blood. Since the days when all she could do was drift aimlessly around her body unable to control even the simplest of movements. In those days she hadn't even been sure she was real half the time. She couldn't do it then, but she had grown stronger.

She pressed against the wall, leaning into it and trying to ignore the tingling pins and needles feeling that encased her. When the tingling turned to burning she pressed on, wading through the muddy sensation that always came with being inside something solid. After a few moments the tingling subsided and she opened her eyes. She was looking at the inside of the flat.

"Huh."

She tried again, through doors and windows and every wall one by one, each time she came out where she had gone in, turned around 180 degrees. She tried reaching her hand through the window to the other side, but she was chest deep in the window and still she didn't feel the air on the outside. just the burning. She was stuck inside and, not for the first time, an anger welled up in her chest. Trapped. Useless.

In the past, her anger had led her to throw things. To rattle doors and bang around. It had scared more than one of the residents, and though she had felt guilty for it in the days after it had never been long before the frustration came again. This time, it melted away into sadness as she looked at her friends things all around her.

Yukiko drifted around the flat, putting things back into place. She did the dishes and organised the mugs. After a short battle she managed to get the ropy vacuum cleaner working and, though she dropped it more times than she cared to count she pushed it around the spaces that weren't covered in Gi's scarves. It didn't take long to get the entire spotless. The way it would have looked if it had been hers, if a little more colourful.

After a little more pacing frustration set in again. When nobody had lived in the flat it had been easy to just pass the time floating around, looking out of the window, phasing out of focus for days at a time. But the change in Yukiko was measurable, and there was nothing that she could do about it. She tried to think about nothing, to drift as she had once been able to. But her mind came back to Ginny. The potential injury. The worry. 

It had been years since she had worried about anything. Years since she had felt so solid.


	14. Ginny

Anna laughing about something...

Red light...

Horns...

Glass...

"Anna look out!"

Gi snapped her eyes open, heart racing.

"Hey, hey shh," a face swam into view above hers. Beeping. She couldn't move her legs.

"Gi, look at me kiddo."

She blinked a few times, trying to force her eyes to focus on something, anything. The dark face cleared and her dad stared down.

"Da?" She didn't sound right, and her throat burned with a white pain that would have raised a scream if she'd been able to.

"I'm here, it's okay. Just relax. You've been out a while."

"What?" Gi tried to look around but it hurt to move. Everything hurt. She closed her eyes for a second.

Someone held a straw to her mouth and she sipped at cool water. It soothed the burning, but only a little.

"You were in an accident. It was pretty bad, but they think you'll be okay."

"Anna?"

She took more water. A small sip as she watched her dad try and work out the words.

"She's not doing so well, Gi. The other car hit the drivers door. There was a lot of glass and she was trapped in the car for a bit. She's in surgery right now."

"Oh."

"Get some rest, Gi. I'll let the nurse know you've woken up."

Gi nodded. She felt her eyes close, almost without her input, and was asleep again before her dad had shut the door.

From the corner, sitting in a chair unseen by Gi, Eddie sat, watching the rise and fall of her chest. He rose, stretching out his aching legs.

"Mr Palmer?" He said as he stepped out of the small room. "I think I'm going to head off. If she wakes up again, will you-?"

"I'll tell her that you stopped by, Eddie. And thank you for bringing her things. It will help her when she's more able to be awake."

"Sure. No problem."

"You can come back tomorrow, if you want to."

"I might," Eddie shrugged. "I'll see how the day goes."

"Okay."

Gi opened her eyes again to a silent room. "Kiko?" she croaked, but there was no scribbling of a notebook. No scarf lingering that she could see. Who would tell her? Would she worry when Gi didn't come home. The door opened and closed and someone put a straw to her mouth.

"Slowly," it was a woman.

"Ma?"

"'Fraid not honey. Your dad called her, but she hasn't picked up yet." She had an accent that Gi couldn't place. Round and warm.

"Okay."

"Drink a little more. Then get some rest. You're going to be here a few days until we can be sure that we got all of the glass out, so you might as well catch up on some sleep."

"Work," Gi mumbled, finding it hard to get her tongue to form the words.

"Your dad is sorting all of that. The university know what happened, so does your job."

"Okay." It struck her that even she didn't know what had happened, but she didn't have the breath to ask.

Her eyelids were too heavy to keep open, and she let them drop closed. For a moment there was nothing but the bustling of the nurse and the beeping of the various monitors. She could feel the needle in the back of her hand, the dull ache that was throbbing through her legs and her spine. The sharp, white pain in her neck. She tried to move but everything felt heavy, too heavy. Maybe the nurse was right, sleep would be good.

For a long while, there was nothing but the darkness, the pain and the beeping.


	15. Yukiko

Yukiko was bored of pacing. Ginny had been in the hospital for two weeks, and she had been more lonely in those days than she could ever remember feeling. She was bored. She made cups of tea, forgetting that nobody would arrive to drink them. She organised and re-organised the clothes and the books. She emptied all of the cupboards and washed every piece of crockery she could find. Then she put on her favourite combination of Gi's disguarded clothes, pushing through the discomfort of garments that were too heavy, and read.

When the door opened she all but ran to the top of the stairs, forgetting that people weren't used to seeing disembodied clothing, forgetting that there was potential that it was a member of Gi's family and not her. She slumped a little when she saw Eddie trudging up the stairs.

"Hi, Yukiko," he said, lifting a hand in a vague wave. "Just here to pick up a few more things."

_How is she?_

Yukiko scribbled so fast that it was almost illegible. Eddie shrugged.

"About the same. She's still in pain, still worried about everything, but she's Ginny. She'll be okay."

_When is she coming home?_

"I don't know Yukiko. I really don't."

She looked at him, forgetting her own worry for a moment. She had never seen Eddie with anything less than a smile on her face. But standing there at the top of the stares, faced with a floating mismatched skirt and jumper, looking up into the ridiculous sun glasses, he looked like he might cry.

_You okay Eddie?_

He nodded, then shook his head. A tear formed at the corner of his eye but he wiped it away.

"She could have died, Yukiko. Really died. She's been my best-. She's been-. For so long I just." He flopped down to sit on the stairs, his head in his hands. "What if I lost her without getting to tell her? What if she had gone and never known?"

Yukiko was taken aback. She knew that Eddie and Gi had been friends for years, but she hadn't expected this. Gi certainly hadn't mentioned. She felt a pang in her chest that she couldn't place.

_You love her?_

The words were hard to write.

"Of course I do. I always have. Right from the first day when she was a freckly little brace face with that out of control curly hair even more out of control energy. She was so bubbly when we were younger. Her dad didn't like me for years. Didn't trust me, he said. He's very protective of her, you know, I was getting her into trouble. Well, not real trouble." He smiled, rueful. "Not trouble like this."

_Why haven't you told her?_

"How could I, Yukiko? She's my best friend. What if I hurt her and lost her all at once? I would rather be her friend and nothing else forever than risk that."

_But you said?_

Yukiko was confused and out of her depth. She knew precious little of Gi's life. She knew her smile and her messy curls and her bright eyes, but she wasn't equipped to talk about the past, her friends.

"I want to tell her, Yukiko. I do. But I'm scared."

_Me too._

She wasn't sure what the words meant, but Eddie didn't seem to be paying much attention.

"I said I would pick up her workbook, she wants to look over some of her sketches for class. Can't stop her working even when she's in the hospital." He gave a short laugh. "She always has been driven.

_I'll get it._

Yukiko could put a hand on almost anything in the flat in a matter of seconds, she lay the sketchbook carefully in Eddie's lap and pulled back. Being close to Gi was almost pleasant, but getting into the space of anyone else had always made her feel strange. Translucent. 

_Tell her to get better from me?_ She scribbled the words out. Replacing them hurriedly. _Wait two minutes?_

She took a sheet of paper and scrawled a note for Gi, it was nothing interesting she knew. Just asking how she was, making sure that she was okay, asking when she would be home. She wrote that she could place a food order on Gi's laptop if Gi needed things in when she got home. She signed it, with a hesitant hand, Kiko. She folded it before Eddie could read any of the short message. 

"Thanks, Yukiko. I'll let you know if there's any more news."

_Okay._

She watched Eddie leave, hovering at the top of the stairs. Eddie loved Gi. Cared about her so much that it hurt him that she was in the hospital. She couldn't remember the last time she felt like that, and envied him the ability while secretly hoping that she might have the chance to do the same, if she ever managed to cross into whatever the afterlife was supposed to be.


	16. Ginny

"I can walk on my own Da, you don't need to hold me up quite so much."

"They said you had to be careful with the crutches. I don't want you to fall and hurt yourself even more."

Gi rolled her eyes, but smiled up at her dad as he helped her limp her way out of the hospital. He wanted everyone to think of him as a gruff old thing, with his dark skin and deep eyes, but he was a teddy bear and she knew it.

"Da if you don't let me walk on my own now how am I going to manage when I'm in the flat?"

"I was thinking that, as we've not heard form your mum yet, maybe I should stay with you until you're settled."

Gi was taken aback.

"But the business? Da you've already taken two weeks out."

"You're my best girl, Gi, I'll take as much time out as I need."

She stifled a sniff and leaned into him, breathing in the mix of washing powder and Old Spice that had made up the scent of her childhood.

"I'll manage, Da. Eddie said he's happy to drive in and bring me shopping, or there is always home delivery. And I have a shower that I can sit in if I need to. It'll be fine."

Plus, she thought, I have a house mate who can help me with most things. The notes from Yukiko had given her little fragments of, well, something. She wasn't sure what but they had helped her feel more at home crammed in the little hospital bed.

"Well I'm happy for you to try and work it out on your own," her dad was saying, "but the minute you have even a single problem you call me. The business can handle itself for a few more days if it needs to."

"Okay Da."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

The car journey home was difficult. At every set of lights Gi felt her heartbeat rise, the tension in her building until she could hardly breathe. The third time that panic hit her she felt a warm hand pressing into her shoulder, grounding her a little.

"It's okay, Gi. You'll be alright."

She nodded, not able to reply, but she took hold of her dads hand for a moment, not caring in the least that it left her feeling like a child. He pulled away from the lights, and everything was fine. She just wished that she could persuade her brain that it was.

As they made it through the door she felt an overwhelming urge to call out to Yukiko, to let her know that she was back, but she stilled the shout. Her dad wouldn't understand, and she was too tired to explain. It could wait until she was stronger, perhaps. She had written ahead, passing a note with Eddie to let her know that they would be home. A small part of her hoped that Yukiko would be standing at the kitchen counter, making a cup of tea wearing a random assortment of Gi's clothes as had become commonplace. But there was no sign of her.

"Well, it's not huge, but you're keeping a nice place Gi," her dad said. He was staring around the flat, appraising it. "Where do you sleep?"

"Uh, there," Gi said, pointing with some embarrassment to the mat on the floor. "But I think I will be sleeping in the chair for a while."

It was a huge squishy chair that she had bought for less than a fiver at a local charity shop. It had taken her all day to carry it back to the flat in fits and spurts, it didn't fit through the doors of the bus, and it had been something of a mission for her and Yukiko to get it up the stairs, but it was her favourite piece of furniture.

"No. No that won't do at all. You can't be sleeping on the floor, or in a chair."

"Da-"

"No, Gi. I know you've always been very independent and you've always just gotten on with things the way they are but this is mad. There's an Ikea an hour away. I'll be there and back with a bed before you know it."

"Da you really don't have to," Gi protested, but the look on her dads face closed the arguments.

"I know I don't have to. But, well, I've not been as much help as I would liked to have been, and this is the least that I can do. Call it a moving in present."

"Will you send me pictures before you buy anything?"

"Of course."

"And find a red one?"

"If they have one."

"Thanks, Da."

"You sure you'll be okay for a few hours?"

"If anything goes wrong I'll call Eddie."

"Okay."

He pulled her in for a swift hug, looked around the flat once more with a smile that was so proud that Gi thought she might cry, and headed back out.


	17. Yukiko

Yukiko grabbed her notepad as soon as Gi's dad closed the door.

_Gi! I've been so worried, what happened?_

"Hi Yukiko. If you'll put the kettle on I will tell you all about it."

_Tea?_

"Oh hell yes."

Making tea had always been a speciality of Yukiko's and she prided herself on never making a bad one. There had been a twinge of horror the first time she had seen Gi making tea, and one they had established their fragile friendship she had taken over any and all tea making in the flat. Gi had complained at first, but changed her tune as soon as she had tasted the difference.

_Eddie said it was an accident?_

Gi nodded, accepting the mug that Yukiko handed to her.

_What happened?_

"I don't know the specifics, Kiko." Yukiko tried not to smile at the name. It churned something in her chest, but she couldn't fathom what. 

"I was running late, well you know that much. I missed the bus so I walked to the next stop. An old house mate stopped me-" Gi made a face that Kiko giggled at. They had talked a little about Gi's house mates. They sounded like the kind of people that Kiko would both love and hate, but she could see how quiet, careful Gi would have needed to get out.

"So she persuaded me to take a lift and I was running late and it was cold and I really wanted to get to work on time so I accepted." Gi sighed, and shuffled closer. "The doctors said that there was a lot of alcohol in her system, and some other things that shouldn't have been there if she was driving. I couldn't even tell, Kiko. I don't know what's more scary, that she asked someone to get into her car when she wasn't safe to drive or that I couldn't tell that she was on something."

_Not your fault._ Yukiko scribbled. _She shouldn't have been driving, her fault._

"I know, everyone has said that, but well look at me now." She gestured to the cast on her leg, and Kiko winced. It was a huge cast. Hip to ankle. "So we were driving and she was chattering on about some guy that she's seeing like I would care and then she ran a red light. There was a horn, and something hot, and then I was in hospital."

Yukiko reached out, in an effort to comfort Gi but she flinched back.

"Hey, Kiko you know you're too cold to get away with that."

She drew back, cursing the stupid movement.

"Sorry," Gi sighed, "I know that was supposed to be reassuring. I just haven't gotten used to how cold you are. I'm sure I'll want your hands on me all the time in the summer when it's hot in here."

Yukiko could have sworn that for a moment a flush rose in her. She shuffled the notepad, not sure what to say.

"I should probably call Eddie, let him know that we're home. He might want to check in."

Yukiko put pencil to paper, watching Gi look down waiting for what she said. She wanted to tell Gi what Eddie had said, to tell her that he loved her and that he was waiting for her to notice. It would be nice for them both if Gi felt the same, but she couldn't do it. Something, somewhere inside her told her that it wasn't the right time.

_Yeah_

"You okay Kiko?"

_Just glad to have you back. It's been boring._

Gi smiled, then laughed, and Yukiko smiled too.

"It has been for me too. I'm really glad to be home.


	18. Ginny

"This stupid cast!"

Gi was sitting on the floor, having managed to slide ungracefully out of her new bed to land on the ground with a thump.

"Kiko? Can you help me up?"

If she hadn't known better she would have been sure that there was a brief giggle on the air before felt the icy touch of her roommates hands in her own, hauling her to a wobbly standing position.

"Thank you. I have no idea how I'm going to manage to shower with this stupid thing on."

_I can help?_

"Uh," Gi was suddenly hot despite the cold fingers that were still twined with her own. "Wouldn't that mean you have to see me naked?"

_You have a swimsuit?_

She nodded. It would be more than strange, the hot water and Yukiko's cold hands, but it was better than spending yet another day without clean hair.

"Okay, okay that will work. Sorry, Kiko, do you think you could-?" But the outfit of the day (a green dress that Gi hadn't been able to get into for years but couldn't bear to get rid of, and a pair of knee high black and green socks that she had bought for Halloween with an orange sun hat) was already heading for the wardrobe. Gi smiled. She was glad that Kiko had adopted clothing as an option, and seeing what she did with Gi's assortment of garments was always interesting, even if there were times that she watched with horror as the clothes slid through the strange, half real girl.

She came back with the swimsuit, and draped it onto the bed. Her dad had bought not only a red sofa bed, but red and orange sheets to with it that made the whole room look like a seventies time capsule, but Gi loved it. She waited for a hesitant moment until Yukiko was around the corner before stripping out of her, she had to admit smelly pyjamas and wiggling ungracefully into the swimsuit. A few times she had to catch herself before she fell over, but managed to stay upright long enough to get into the darn thing.

"Okay Kiko, I'm decent."

Yukiko emerged and again brought a smile to Gi's lips. She was holding a towel out ahead of her so that she, Gi assumed, wouldn't be able to see anything she shouldn't. There was a note pinned to it.

_I'll be as careful as I can._

"Between us we'll manage," Gi said, still smiling. Kiko was just the right amount of goofy to make her laugh, and just the right amount of sensitive that she hadn't ever felt too uncomfortable around her. Though Gi had gotten a little frustrated with the way that Yukiko managed to drop everything, regardless of what it was. It had been bad enough when there was one clumsy person in the small space, and she was waiting for the day when they tripped over one another.

"Okay, Kiko, I think I'm going to have to sit down in here because I can't get the cast wet. Do you, uh," she swallowed, her mouth dry, "are you alright to get in the shower. You know-"

_Without your clothes on?_

The note finished her sentence and Gi tried to halt the blush that was rising. She was going to be showering, with a naked woman. No, she thought. She was going to have her hair washed. 

By a naked woman. She tried to breathe the strange twist in her chest away.

"Yeah. If that's okay?"

_Sure. You still can't see me, right?_

"Not as far as I can tell."

_Okay_

The dress and socks dropped to the floor, swiftly followed by the hat which was tossed towards the door and ended up sailing through it.

She could feel the oops coming, but Yukiko didn't write it down. Instead she wrote two short words.

_You ready?_

Gi nodded, and scooted as far back as she could into the shower. She watched as the now once again invisible form of Yukiko lifted the shower head from it's cradle and turned the water on. It was icy for a moment, but she kept it out of the way until it was warm.

"That's warm enough I think, Kiko. I don't know if you can tell?"

The shower head bobbed up and down as though it was nodding, and Gi stifled a giggle. It was surreal to be communicated with through the means of a nodding shower.

The water was bliss against her scalp and shoulders, and though it was a little painful over the stitches in her back she was glad to have it there. Slowly getting everything clean. A shampoo bottle lifted, and squeezed itself into a puddle in mid air before - in a strange merging of hot and cold - it started to work itself into her hair. The feeling was less unpleasant than she had expected.

There was a hum in the air, as if Kiko was singing something under her breath. Gi wondered if perhaps she was. Since the brief moment where she had seen the dark haired smiling girl there had been other snippets, pieces of her that had come through in quiet moments. A laugh when they were reading together, a snippet of song when she was making tea. Gi hadn't mentioned them, for fear that they would stop all together.

Another ten minutes and her hair was soaped and conditioned, and she had taken a moment to wash her face while Yukiko kept the water out of the way of her leg.

"Okay, I'm done. I think you can turn the water off. Then, I might need a hand up."

She watched as the shower turned off, re-seated itself, and then a strange mist of water passed her in the form of a person. Dropleted hands reached out to her, and Gi felt her mouth falling open. It was the most she had seen of Yukiko, in a lot of ways. A full form, outlined almost imperceptibly. She swallowed the lump in her throat and took the hands, hauling herself to a standing position and wrapping herself in the towel that had been hung on the radiator.

"Thank you, Yukiko," she whispered.

_Anytime_


	19. Yukiko

Yukiko floated around the kitchen, putting together a meal that she used to love. It had been something her mother had made for her when she had been ill, and she had sent Eddie out, somewhat guiltily as he had only just walked in the door, to pick up ingredients to that she could do the same for Gi.

"How do I know I'll like it. How do _you_ know?"

_I just know. Nobody dislikes Miso soup, Gi_

"I don't know. I don't even recognise half the things that are in there.

_It will be worth it._

"Hmm," Gi grumbled.

Yukiko smiled and gave the pan another stir, wishing that she could eat with Gi. It felt like years since she had had a good Miso soup.

_What are you working on?_

It was the first time since the accident that she had seen Gi sketching, and she was glad of it. For a while it had seemed to Yukiko that Gi wouldn't be able to do anything other than eat and sleep, but the pain was lessening and she was getting the cast off in a few days. Then physiotherapy would start and Yukiko had a feeling that that would be more painful that the break. But she would be there, and she would make Miso. It might help.

"It's supposed to be a mountain range but, it doesn't feel real. I don't know, nothing I paint looks right. Not ever. I put so much in but they never feel like places that someone could be, you know?"

_I remember mountains._ Yukiko wrote, placing the soup down on a side table that Eddie had rescued from the communal rubbish for them. 

_I was, somewhere. I don't remember, but I could see forever. There was a lake, way down at the bottom of them, and coming up from it these green hills that just carried on forever. Every direction, it was like a bowl. I could see for miles, inside this crater of land and water._

"That sounds beautiful."

_You could paint it. I remember. I can see it._

"I don't think I could do it justice."

Yukiko frowned, and took the pad from Gi's hands, replacing it with the soup. She watched, nervous for a moment as Gi took the first spoonful. The look of confusion then glee was exactly the face that Yukiko had hoped for.

_Told you so._

"Tell me more about this bowl."

Yukiko wrote while Gi ate, eventually giving in and passing Gi's sketchbook back so that she could turn to a new page and start drawing out what was being described. A smile grew on her face the more the image came to life, even in the simple sketch. It took a little time, and there was more to be done, but inside an hour it was as though she could have been there. Standing in a grey and white version of the landscape that was resting behind her eyes.

_And you say you have no talent._

"It's better than my others, I'll admit that much," Gi whispered frowning at it. "I think I'm too tired to put colour on."

_That's okay. It will stay in my head a while longer I think._

Yukiko took the bowl from Gi, smiling as she saw that it had been scraped clean. Nobody disliked Miso. There was a pang in her chest as she wished that she could eat her mother's recipe again. Maybe it was worth trying, though she didn't know how much she would be able to taste. The thought drifted away as she heard a rustling behind her. Gi had tucked up on the sofa, pulling the covers over herself, not bothering to turn it into a bed.

"I think I'm going to have a nap, Kiko," she muttered, her words already thick with sleep.

There would be no time for Yukiko to reply, so she just pulled the covers up a little, and settled with the most recent of Gi's collection of books that she had been reading. The dishes could wait.


	20. Ginny

"Kiko?" Gi was drying dishes while Yukiko washed. They had fallen into a strange kind of routine in the three months that they had, for all intents and purposes, been room mates. Every morning Gi was woken up at the same time with a cup of tea in the chalkboard mug that she had ordered online. On the mug was a suggestion for what to have for breakfast. Kiko almost always cooked. Gi did the dishes.

_?_

She took a deep breath. Deciding what to say hadn't been the hard part really. It was deciding when.

"Can I ask you about how you died?"

_I don't remember._

The message was the same as it had been the last time she asked, but she pressed on. Gi had done her research, she remembered the article in better detail than she had wanted to. Girl murdered. Suspect in prison.

"I know you don't. But, well, when I first moved in here and they told me about the history of the place," she tried to keep her voice even while she dried the small plate that had held yesterday's dinner. "There was some information, about you. I didn't know if, maybe it would, help?"

She held her breath. The marigold gloves had stopped moving in the sink. For a moment there was a brief sound that could have been a sniff.

_I don't think I want to remember. It feels, bad._

"Okay. I won't press you. I just thought it might help you. I don't think it's normal for a ghost to hang on, and well, I thought maybe if you wanted to..." She didn't finish the sentence. The gloves had been taken off mid wash, the pen was scrawling across the white board.

_Whatever happened, it was nothing but pain. I think for a long time. When I try to remember, it's like something clawing behind my eyes. I don't want to go back there. I don't know if I can. It's scary, Gi._

"Hey," Gi put her hand over the pen, only wincing a little at the shock of cold. "It's okay. You don't have to if you don't want to. I just wanted to make sure that you know I'll help you, if you want the help. If you want to remember."

There was a small movement that was almost certainly a nod from the scarf that was making up most of Yukiko's head.

"I'm sorry, Kiko. I didn't mean to pry."

_It's okay. I just wish it didn't hurt so much._

"Maybe with time it won't." She tried to smile, and gave the strange cool resistance under her hand a squeeze. "Do you fancy helping me with another landscape today? I've had some interest in The Bowl, I think we might be able to sell it you know."

_Sell it, to who?_

"There's a trust somewhere up in the Lake District that run youth hostels. They want it for one of the hostel lobbies if the price is right. I really don't know what to ask for it. I might see what they have in mind."

_That's fantastic!_

"It's not bad. A few more like that to my name and maybe someone will finally look at my website and then who knows."

_You'll be a painter for films yet._


	21. Yukiko

Yukiko stared out the window, watching Gi make her way to the bus stop. The weather was getting warmer but Gi was still wrapped up as if she was going out into the arctic. Kiko smiled the little at the bobbing figure, hair blowing in the breeze. She was listening to music, forgetting that people could see her as she danced around the corner.

There was an article.

She shuddered. The thought of Gi knowing more about how she had died was enough to make the strange knot in her gut tighten. It wasn't that she hadn't tried to remember, she had told Gi one more than one occasion, she wanted to know. But every time she tried there was pain. Pain in her chest and her head, a tight feeling in places that had no reason to be tight. It was too much. Too much to feel.

Her latest book was sitting on the side, half read. It was a travel novel, technically half non fiction. She enjoyed it, but it left her feeling like she was missing something. She often felt like she was missing something. In the evenings, when Gi was asleep, she sat with her eyes closed trying to work out what that something was.

She sat and pushed her mind back. Back to before Gi had moved in, to before the lady with the baby, before the man who drank too much. Before, before, before, until there was her furniture. Her life. Photographs on the walls, what were they from? She tried to move towards them, but something was holding her. Gripping her chest making her burn. The pain ran from her core down her arms. Into her hands. Pain. Red hot pain.

She prised her eyes open and looked around. Still in the flat, Gi's flat. None of her things. No pictures. If the pain had been less she was certain that she would have been able to see more. But there seemed to be no moving past it. Perhaps if she knew what had happened. How she had died. There was a certainty, somewhere in the back of Yukiko's mind, that she knew. That it had been something unpleasant. Why else would she be stuck?

There was an article.

Gi's laptop was sitting on the bed, she didn't take it to work. Yukiko opened the lid. There was no password, Gi had never seen a need and it meant that Yukiko could look at things during the day if she got bored. She typed in her name and watched the results scroll in. Dead. Girl Found Dead. Family Sorrow for Daughter.

The outpouring of sympathy was almost as bad as the pain, it gripped her, pulled her this way and that. She read and read and read, read about her family and what people around the county thought of her death. Not one article told her how, why. They all spoke of sadness, of the shame of it, of her being so young. Nothing about the how.

_Perhaps my parents would know._

The pictures of her parents had brought the biggest pain. Her short dark haired mother, her shorter light haired father. She remembered them, with so much clarity that for a time she just sat and stared at them. Her parents. Her sister. But they wouldn't be able to see her, wouldn't believe if it Gi told them that she was there. Superstition and tradition talked of spirits, of course, but they were modern people. It was the kind of thing that only happened in films, in books.

_What if the pain never goes away?_

She closed the laptop and went back to her book, hoping that she would feel better when Gi got home.


	22. Ginny

Gi watched Yukiko drift from the counter to the window and back again. Something had been off with her for the last couple of days. She hadn't been chatty, hadn't been listening to music when Gi cam home from work or university. She hadn't even really wanted to paint. She just drifted around.

"You okay, Yukiko? You've seemed a bit absent the last few days," she tried to keep her tone cheerful.

_I suppose I've been thinking a lot._

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I don't know.

Gi sighed, there wasn't much that she could do with that. It was a bright Friday evening, warmer than it had been for the last few weeks.

"Do you want to try going out? If we can work out how to get you outside then we could go for a walk?"

_I can't get out. I tried when you were in the hospital. It doesn't work._

Even the handwriting looked gloomy. Gi was worried. Yukiko was the bright one. Always the one who wanted to dance and explore, who wanted to talk for hours about places they could adventure to. She was the one who had shown Gi that she could walk around other countries on Google Maps and find places to paint.

"Do you mind if I head out for a bit? Need to get some shopping in and I think Eddie wants to grab a coffee before the end of the week."

_No problem._

"Want me to bring anything home?"

_No thanks._

"Okay. Well," she grabbed her jacket, watching Yukiko float one way, then the other. "Call me if you need anything?"

_You wouldn't be able to hear me_

"No, but if the house phone calls I will know it's you."

_Okay._

Eddie was waiting for her at the local coffee house, beaming as she came in the door, but it fell as she walked towards him, frowning.

"You know, when you asked me for coffee I thought it would be a social affair. Who died?"

"Nobody died, I mean unless you count Yukiko." She gave a short laugh. "I'm worried about her, Eddie. She's just drifting about the flat, half doing things, not wanting to talk. She's like a different person. I don't know what's wrong and she won't tell me so I can't even do anything."

"Maybe she's not enjoying her death?"

"But she's never been like this before. I'm sure somethings wrong. I know her Eddie. At least I thought I did. She's not like this."

"I don't know, Gi," Eddie was looking down at her coffee. "Do you really know her? You don't even really know how she died. It could have been anything. She could be like this all the time and you just didn't know until now."

"No, Eddie. I know her," Gi snapped. She surprised herself. Something about Eddie's tone made her want to stand up and walk out. Of course she knew Yukiko. Knew her well enough to know when something was wrong.

"Fine, so you know her. So you know somethings wrong. It's not like you can do anything about it. She's dead."

"What the hell Eddie?" She already had one mopey friend, she didn't need a second. "Has the same thing that's bitten her got you too?"

"I just don't want to spend all of our time together talking about Yukiko. Ever since you moved in there she's been your only topic of conversation. You don't ever talk about anything else. You don't seem to think about anything else. Your work is Yukiko, your painting is Yukiko. This deal you got for that landscape you credited her for!? It's like you don't have your own life anymore."

"Wow. Well I'm sorry that for the first time in ten years I've made another friend. Look Eddie, if you think I'm going to abandon you-"

"What do you mean think? I never see you, we talk once a week if I'm lucky," he frowned back at his coffee. "I miss you Gi."

"I'm sorry, Eddie. I've been busy. I know I have. Plus you live an hour away and I don't drive."

"I know, it's okay. I don't want to argue with you."

He still looked petulant, and Gi was finding it hard to be sympathetic. She sighed - taking the spoon that he was stirring his coffee to excess with - and put it on the table. It forced him to look up at her.

"I'll try and be less distracted. Now will you help me? I need you."

"I suppose I might be able to help you brainstorm."

"You're the best Eddie."

He sighed, and she frowned.

"What?"

"You always say that," he said, shrugging.

Gi thought it best not to ask what he meant. Eddie had always been there, and perhaps it was true that she had taken him for granted a little. Especially since moving into the flat. But he was behaving strangely and she had a feeling that it wasn't anything to do with her.


	23. Yukiko

Yukiko was laying on the floor. It wasn't something that she did very often. The tingling up and down her back where her skin was in contact with the ground was strange, a kind of pins and needles that no amount of fidgeting would get rid of.

She remembered laying on the floor a lot, when she was alive. It was frustrating, that she could remember some things and not others. She remembered the feeling of wind in her hair when she was at the top of a hill, but not the hills themselves. She remembered the feeling of exhaustion at the end of a long day, but not why. And she remembered pain.

There had been a lot of pain, she thought. There must have been for it to hurt so much to try and push back. To remember the things that she had forgotten. Sometimes when she pushed it was more than her chest, it was her arms, her fingers.

_If I could just work out why._

The frustration rose and she slammed her hand into the floor. It struck, but it didn't add to the pain. It should have, once it would have.

A scratching of the key, then the door clicked open.

"Yukiko?"

She lay, staring up at the ceiling. Gi was worried, of course she was, but how could she tell her? How could she ask for help?

_You didn't ask last time. You ran._

The thought hit her harder than any of the pain had. She hadn't asked. She hadn't wanted it then. Maybe with Gi things would be different. Maybe, if she could ask.

Maybe.

"You okay?"

Gi was searching the flat, the concerned face that she had been wearing still covering the usual smile.

_Thinking about the past_

Yukiko wrote slowly, not sure what to say.

"Anything you want to talk about?"

_Maybe._

She watched Gi sit down, curling her feet up under her so that she looked like some kind of elf. It always made Yukiko smile when she sat like that. Waiting for something.

"So?"

_I think I remember, something. I used your laptop, yesterday, to try and find out what happened. It didn't say, but I remember that I didn't ask for help. I didn't ask anyone for anything, but I think I needed it._

"Okay. But now you want to ask?"

_I don't know._

Yukiko tried to find the words. She didn't know what she needed help with, other than remembering. It wasn't like Gi could remember for her, could take away the pain.

_I think I need to remember._

"Even though it hurts?"

_It seems important. Maybe, if I remember, it would help?_

"Okay," Gi was smiling at her again. The slightly lopsided smile that graced people she really trusted. Yukiko had seen the cold, nervous smile that she used for salespeople, and the flat patient smile when dealing with people she didn't like. But that lopsided one was rare, and lovely. "I'll do whatever I can."

_I don't know how to start._


	24. Ginny

Gi took the cold hands that had been offered to her. Yukiko had put gloves on to make the process easier, and had thrown on a pair of jeans that Gi didn't even know she owned with a jumper that was so old it was almost worn out. She had never seen Yukiko look that way. Casual, comfortable. It was like a different person was sitting across from her.

"Okay, I've got you. I don't really know how this works, but the website said that having someone to ground you might make the hypnosis easier. It might work?"

I don't know if it's the same as hypnosis.

"Probably not," Gi sighed, "But you're trying to remember and if I can pull you through the pain a bit. Well, we'll see. I'm here either way."

Okay.

Gi wasn't sure what to expect, she watched the clothing that was Yukiko as it sat unmoving, the gloves gripping her hands.

The grip tightened and she felt Yukiko shaking. The pain she had talked about must have been serious to have such an effect so quickly.

"I'm here, Yukiko. It's okay." She squeezed the hands that were in hers, trying to ignore the burning cold. She hadn't ever touched her ghostly companion for so long, it wasn't the most comfortable thing that she had ever experienced. "It can't hurt you anymore. You can do this."

Another ten minutes passed, Gi muttered encouragement through the burning in her hands. She wanted to break the connection, to pull away and warm herself. If she came away with anything less than frostbite she wouldn't be surprised. It felt worse than the time she had played out in the snow for too long and given herself chilblains. But Yukiko was still in pain, so she held on. She held on though her fingers felt like they were going to break off.

Held on for the girl who laughed at her Bob Ross videos, for the girl who had broken six mugs before she had found she was strong enough to hold them up. Held on for the girl who was always there to make her smile at the end of the long day. Gi had never wanted to live with anyone again, especially after the horror that was halls. But Kiko was something else, something different. Even when she frustrated Gi to the point of insanity she still wanted to be around her. For the dancing at two in the morning because they couldn't sleep. For the Miso soup.

"Hold on, Yukiko. Keep going. I believe in you."


End file.
